All right, hey, hey, hey, we're back.
We're black, We're brown.
I'm Tiffany, I'm Mady and this is Brown Ambition.
Nailed it. Happy Brown Ambition Wednesday, guys.
Yeah, Happy bron Ambition Wednesday.
So let's talk about the elephant in the room, or shall we say the two step in the room.
Are you talking about This Is America?
Yes, only Donald we acknowledge is Glover.
First of all, Donald Glover. I don't know if anyone listening has ever watched the show Community, Like I never really had watched it. My husband liked it. But if you look at Donald Glover, his character on Community, it's like he put that character in a trash can and burned it, like blew it up, and he's like, I'm never going to be this person again. I am doing
things my way. And then he came out with like Atlanta and now all this music, and basically he's owning the internet right now because his video for This Is America just dropped like the same weekend that he hosted SNL and what might have been one of the blackest episodes of SNL in a long time.
I haven't seen that, but I've seen the video and I'm not gonna lie. At first, I saw the Instagram clips of it, which if that's all you've seen, you have not seen it, and I was like, what's going on? Because I'm like, why is he dancing so weird? Like I didn't get it, you know, I was like, Oh, he's dancing. And then when I saw the whole video,
I said, Okay, there's a lot to unpack here. And then I started reading you know articles love he has a great one, Okay Africa and okay player, I think, or okay Africa has.
A great one.
Everyone's got a thought piece.
Yes, and it's like but what I liked about it is that there are components that I missed, Like is that Trayvon Martin's father that was shot in the beginning, like the chaos going on in the background.
Wait was it.
There's mixed opinions about whether it was, but like, for example, how they handled the guns versus how they handle the bodies that passed away. They handled the guns so carefully, yes, and the people that were killed were just kind of like looked over or dragged away.
So there's just a lot to unpack.
I wanted to take a minute and read some of the comments we got on Instagram because I asked our followers if they wanted if they had any thoughts to share on the video. We got some really good, thoughtful comments. Let me read this one. This one's from Instagram user deb Hack nineteen ninety one. She says, I think childish Gambino is a representation of America and all of the things of distraction from what's going on behind him. Instagram user man versus Cash says deb Hack nineteen ninety one
has it pretty right. As long as we keep focusing on the shucking and driving that occurred throughout the entire video, so we won't see what has been happening for the last thirty plus years. All the slave references, references to Michael Jackson eighties nineties cars to Rodney King. Also the fact that both guns were wrapped in a red veil and protected while the victims were unceremoniously dragged off. It got me.
Wow, Yes, those are I mean, those are great. I mean I'm looking at them now.
Honestly, I love when you guys kind of let your thoughts be known via social So if you didn't know, we have an Instagram page, it is Brown Ambition podcast, and if you ever want to leave any commentary, either on our Instagram page or just in general, use the hashtag brown ambition so we can find you and we'll read them in the beginning of the show.
Every week'll be looking. Don't make a fool of yourself. Don't use the hashtag brown ambition in vain.
Yeah. So on Twitter and Instagram, those are two mains right now. So Instagram you can comment under one of our posts, and on Twitter, definitely tag us and use the hashtag brown ambition so we can find you.
Some people send us news stories that they think would be good for a bron booster or brown break. I love it you can. Yeah, so if you use the hashtag brown ambition every week, I'll be looking for that on Twitter and on Instagram. So if you want to share a story, or if you want to say, hey, I was really brown ambition this week because I got a's on my exams, or I just got you know, a huge scholarship to go to college, or I just paid off a credit card, like those are the stories
that we love. Please please please share, and of course comment and and just communicate because this feels like I mean, I can't tell you how many emails we get from people who were like, I feel like I have a friend. I feel like I have sisters Mandy and Tiffany, but we want to hear from you.
You know.
It's it's meant to be a conversation that includes you, guys, So definitely look out for your comments on social.
Yeah, exactly.
Just don't snapchat me because I don't do that anymore.
Yeah, nobody doesn't, no, you know.
Addly enough, like Snapchat is still like the number two most popular downloaded app on Apple, so I mean someone's downloading these five year olds. So I was gonna, babe say this from Brown Booster break, but I think I'll just share. I got somebody fired, and I feel mixed, mostly happy but sad because you never want anyone to.
Be fired, but ye and I never.
Yeah, I mean, well here's the once I tell you, you're gonna be like, oh, she needs to go. I was talking to my CFO on Mondays. We have our team meetings and my sister's kids there three and one, and you can watch them at daycare at this website called watch Me Grow. So it's just basically cameras in every room. And so I was watching and it was naptime and I'm watching in my nephew's room.
He's asleep.
But there's like a young teacher I want to say, she's in her twenties and the kids like I remember these days because I used to be that teacher in the classroom, like cleaning up while the kids are on their cot, supposed to be sleeping.
But they're not. So the kids are a little restless.
Some of them are like taking off their shoes, and this one is sitting up and this one's moving around.
So she's a little rough with them. I noticed.
I'm like, ugh, so I'm talking about see a phone. I'm like, hold on, girl, something's happening in the classroom. She grabs one kid and kind of like like you know, like roughly puts him back on the cot, and I'm like, oh, that seems a little excessive, and does it to another. And it was clear that she was kind of like whisper yelling at them, you know how you could see
people's mannerisms. And he threw this took this blake off this little girl, pulled it roughly because she wasn't laying down, threw it on top of her and gave her a little pop on the behind, and.
I said, oh my goodness, did she just hit this little girl?
It wasn't hard, but still I was like, uh, and what took The cake boy was like not laying down, and she kind of pushed his head down and then pulled his.
Ear, you know how like you seem like the old little.
Italian lady, like pulling your ear back and forth, like what are you doing? But I'm like, this is not your child, and he's too and you're pulling his ear. I was like I I quickly got off the phone. I called my sister and I told her and she was like what And she said, you know, she's a little aggressive with the kids. And I told them, and they make nothing but excuses for her. But I've never
seen her like do anything. It's always been just like, huh, you know, you pulled them a little too quickly, or just you know, like she's never seen anything like this before. So I called the center myself, so as I'm on the phone with her, we both watched and she did something that was slightly in appropriate. And then she rewinds the tape as I'm on the phone with her and she's watching, like, oh my good.
She's like, I'm gonna call you right back. So I guess she must have jumped off the.
Phone because then went over there because they're only down the street from each other. The two centers went down there, and I guess they pulled her to the side and let her go. So, you know, you never want to get anybody fired, but you can't beat on people's kids.
You know, they knew she knew she was on camera, right.
Yeah, I don't even know what she was thinking.
Wow, that no one's probably watching.
Yeah, And I think truth of the matter is because I told my sister when she went to go pick up the kids what happened. She's like, they just did like a general announcement like such a such, just not with this anymore. Her way of doing things were not aligned with the center. So I don't think. I don't honestly, I really think the majority of parents were not are
just they just don't watch. But I watch, you know, like as I'm kind of chilling by the computer, if I'm like doing work, I'll just peek in because honestly, I'm not watching to peek in on the teachers. Quite honestly, I don't get to see my niece and my nephew as much as that possible.
So I just watched for stalkers reasons like oh.
Just to kind of see my niece and my nephews and say I don't see them as often. But I was horrified, Like I said, she didn't, she didn't, you know, do anything to him. But I thought to myself, you know, if you'll do this to one kid, you'll do it to another, you know.
M And with as much as childcare costs, like as much as like daycare costs, I would be watching and expect like, you're not going to hit my kid when I'm picking like thousands of dollars.
Yes, when I tell you, like at one point, her daycare bill was like something like twenty one hundred dollars a months.
For both of them. Can you want to see one?
I was just like, uh, and you're gonna be inappropriate with my kid, I don't think.
So.
Let us boost and break. Yes, if you don't mind, I have a boost this week. Okay did you say you do mind?
No?
No, I don't mind, okay, because I wasn't gonna care if you mind it. So I got a boost real quick. I am just I know I am late to the party. This is some granola crunchy stuff. But you're vegans that you can't talk. So I am late to the compost party. But I love. I freaking love composting, like when you yes, I am like a convert. I've been wanting to. I know in New York City they had they were starting
to do like some composting programs. I think in Brooklyn, of course, but I never made my way to like all the composting programs. You're where I lived in Queens or then in Jersey where I was last year. You had to like collect your stuff and then bring it to the food market, which was you know you had if you did. We didn't have a car, so we had to like carry a bag of food trash basically, you know, several blocks if not take a subway to
drop our food off. It was never convenient. But now that we moved to the Burbs, so my town just this past winter launched their food compost program and for twenty dollars. You go to the town, and I think a lot of towns do this now. You go to the town the nature center or whatever, and they give you a little food pail that you put on your countertop, and you collect your food scraps during the week. And then I'm listening to myself saying, I know I sound so crunchy, but I don't care.
It's amazing.
I'm like, oh, and then you collect your food scraps. So you put your food scraps in the little food pail on your countertop, but don't worry about it's smelling. In fact, the reason I love it so much is because we used to always have a smelly trash can. No matter what you did, you put it under the sink, you put a lid on it, whatever if you like. It would take us a while to fill the trash can, and you put you make a salad, you put your scrap in there, and then two days later your house
is funky. So this way the food pail, it seals. It's like air tight, so the fumes stay in the pail as long as it's closed. So you just put your scraps in there during the week, and then slowly you fill up one little pail and then you close the bag and you put it into a slightly larger pail that they also give you for that twenty dollars. And then when you're done, you just drop it off at the compost facility like whenever. I don't know, we did it like once a week and the the like
I we create such little trash. Now it's amazing. Our recycling bin is packed, the compost bin is full. But the actual we have one sad little trash bag in our trash can this week. And I just felt really good about myself.
That's good.
Look at you lowering your carbon finger No, what is it carbon footprint?
Fingerprint?
Yeah, I was trying to be up on the hip food the hip like lingo of like you know, of the vegan. So when we were kids, we used to compost the little because my dad always kept the garden. So we would save our vegetable and fruit scraps and like throw it in this like pile in the backyard and he would use it to like you know, fertilize the fruits and vegetables.
Oh I can't do that, man. I saw a possum troll in the streets last week.
Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, Now you have to.
Keep that food pill in the house. Listen. I found a bunny rabbit in my thought. I saw a beaver last week. The amount of wildlife is a little overwhelming.
Beaver, a bundy, a baby beaver, a deer, then you just get deer in fox too.
Who I could use a fox. There's also coyotes roaming my county. Now. One coyote attacked a little girl had a playground. Y'all think I have never been more afraid than I am as a homeowner. Can never I never really feared anything living in an apartment in New York City, Jersey Queens wherever. My parents were always worried about. You, Like this is I feel safe all the time. I could be out late, take the subway home. There's still be people out and about. It is creepy. As a
mother in the suburbs, it is quiet, everyone is inside. Yeah, you feel like no one could hear you scream. And if someone if, like a coyote attacked me, what am I going to do about it? Like there's no it's so scary, Like I'm turning into a big baby. This brown boost, this brown boos is turning into a break for being alone in a house by yourself, which I, an adult woman in her thirties, just can't do.
Apparently, Oh yeah, I see, I've done both. I've lived in the city, well not super city like you. I feel like Newark is not it's city, but it's not like super city. And then but I've mostly lived in the suburbs as a kid, so like I'm used to all the like, oh, look there's a deer and there's a you know, I don't know, beaver and whatever, so.
Yeah, you know what it is.
My dad is traditional African man, so he's like, go get go, get my pitchfork.
I'm like, what I can remember.
I don't know what kind of animal it was, but it was like in our garage, like making thrashing about, and my dad was like, can my pitchpork?
I don't know what happened. I was like, Daddy, let's just call it animal control.
You are not, like, are you crazy? You're gonna battle of that one with whatever this thing is.
Now. He came back, breathing heavy. I said, what happened?
He was like, I got it into the corner and I had my pitchfork raise and then I looked at its beautiful brown eyes and it looked so sad and scared.
So I opened the garage door and let it go. It was like daddy transition.
It was too fast for me, and.
That's the man's planning for Oh that is hilarious.
But yeah, I'm gonna yeah, Okay, So I'm gonna brown break and just a quick brown break because I posted this on my ig stories.
I'm brown breaking from.
My mentee reached out to me because she had spent like a lot of money to learn how to grow a business from, like, you know, everybody now is like a business culture consultant, and a lot of these are millennial, you know, there's most of them are like millennial ass which is no shame shade to millennials, but like just young people, you know.
And so she was attracted to this because she was like.
Oh, they're young, I'm young. They're going to teach me how to grow business. She spent a couple thousand dollars and she walked away feeling like I didn't really learn anything, and so I'm gonna kind of brown break from. I gave her some tips next time about investing in herself that she should. There's nothing wrong with investing in yourself.
You obviously should. And so she never thought about it, you know, like, oh, did this person ever grow business outside of like them selling me this business class, and they if you really kind of looked into this person's social media whatever, that you don't see anything else other than my business is to tell you how to have a business.
And so I was like, that's a red flag.
And so I'm kind of brown breaking from that business model, which is the business of teaching you how to have a business, but not.
Having a business, not having a business myself.
And I felt bad because I could tell she was like, cause she doesn't have a whole bunch of money, so to spend two thousand dollars and it.
Was two thousand dollars.
The gall the unmitigating golfing, the actual f you know.
But I told her, you we all learned these lessons, my mentee, we all learn these lessons. And it's a hard lesson to learn. But knowing that when you're choosing experts to listen to, to make sure that they've actually done the thing that they're teaching you, not just teaching you how to do the thing. I mean, I'm not trying to, you know, stop anybody's hustle, but you know, you know, it's just honestly, it's it's not very fair and it's not right. Someone' was like well, what about you. You
taught about money before you have money. I'm like, no, no, no. When I was broke, all I taught was how to budget because I was the best broke budget and that's literally what I taught. And then when I fixed my credit, I taught how did I fix my credit? And then when I got out of debt, I taught how did I get out of debt. I always talk from a place of I did this thing, It actually works, And let.
Me show you how if you.
You know, are looking for business advice, especially if you're going to pay for it, to really you know, to vet the person that you're paying to make sure that they they really have an expertise in that topic, that they have a business outside of teaching you how.
To have a business.
Can I add one thing because we got an email from a listener named Carly. It's not a question, but she just wanted to let us know about some scam. Essentially, she you know these like group trips online, like retreats or girl tribes. You know these these group travel trips. We've talked about some of them before. Just to make sure you vet those two because she got scammed out
of money. She basically paid for a costa Rica retreat that she paid for in full before departure, and then two days before they were supposed to leave, they canceled the trip and the person who was running the trip said that she was scammed and all this messiness happened and they never received a refund. So just another example that makes me so mad.
Yes, so I would say with those type of things, if you could pay via PayPal, because PayPal typically sides with the with the buyer.
Ah, that's that's true, and you're like your credit card. Yeah, some credit cards have good liability, like if you have a if you have a record to the transaction and you tell your credit card company that you didn't get what you were supposed to receive, you can file a fraud alert and they will investigate and maybe refund you the money.
If whenever I'm buying anything online, I really try to use my credit card, or if I'm purchasing something, I use PayPal. Even if they're like, oh, could you pay this way, I'm like, can I do PayPal that way? If I don't get it, I can say, hey, PayPal didn't get it, because PayPal will while they're weight they'll freeze so that person will not be able to pull that and draw that money. They'll freeze it and they'll pull it right back.
PayPal is one of the only like P two P like payment services that actually cover covers you for that kind of stuff, which everyone's finding out now. If you use like zell or Venmo and you try and pay for a service or like a product from someone else and they try out to be a scammer, you're not covered.
Mm hmm.
Definitely make sure. That's a good tip. So credit cards are use PayPal.
At a venimum exactly. Question time, Brian, do we get any questions? Because I know last and we were a little light.
Did we ever? We got some good We got a good couple of good questions this week. Am I save a couple for next week? Again? If you guys have questions, hit us up at Brand Ambition Podcasts at gmail dot com that I'll send us an email directly, or you can go to our website. Yes, we have one Brand Ambition podcast dot com and hit ask us anything. First
questions from listener Neka says, I love the podcast. I've been following Tiffany the Budgetista for over a year and then I saw a video a while back where she said she has a podcast and now I love Mandy. Oh, thank you girl. Her question is Necka's question is I have credit card debt of twenty thousand dollars and student loan debt of over two hundred thousand dollars. Which is going I'm going to start the snowball method by paying
off the lowest balance on my credit card first. But I'm wondering should I withdraw some money from my retirement fund for my old job to help pay down the debt or is that an I don't know touching retirement money. I have six figure income as a health professional, but with four young children and being the sole breadwinner, I am really feeling like I'm affluent poor trying to get out of an overwhelming situation and take some actionable steps.
Please help affluent poor. It's crazy when you can be I mean, first of all, if you want to find out how you can be six figures, earn six figures and still feel broke have four kids, Okay, yes we feel I mean, I don't feel you. I was one of four children, so I was part of the problem. But plus, if you need to do everything right, she's a doctor, she's a healthcare professional. But when it got a medical degree, that's easily a few hundred thousand dollars
in debt. So this is not an outrageous amount of debt to have, but dipping into a retirement fund, Tiffany, what are your thoughts on that?
So my knee jerk reaction is almost always don't do it because one day your old lady self will need it. But there are some instances where it's like if you're really drowning, drowning and there's like no way out, sometimes that's a way out.
You know.
Have you looked into the forgiveness program before they totally take it away. I don't know where you work, but oftentimes, you know, doctors, if you work at a specific type of hospital that you might you might qualify for the student loan forgiveness program, which would help tremendously, you know, or you might be someone where it makes sense to say, well, is there something I can do to qualify for the
forgiveness program? Is there a job that I can get that would still pay me this basically the same amount of money?
But because this is this hospital is a.
Nonprofit hospital or run by a nonprofit, then I can I can qualify and get this loan forgiven, because that's a lot of money. And to me, it would be worth it to switch a job to qualify for the forgiveness program if I was gonna make the same amount of money to get two hundred thousand forgiven.
So consider that.
But what I don't want you to do is like knee jerk reactions, say well, let me take this money from this four to one k, because what if to yes, now you are really in dire streets and then you don't have that access. Start the snowball method, automate it
and truck along. And you know, I'm assuming you're going to get raises, you know, typically at you know, at least the rate of inflation every year, and you can put those raises towards your debt and slowly but surely work toward it without pulling from retirement.
I think she's right to focus on the credit card debt first. She has about twenty thousand dollars in credit card debt. I mean, if we're assuming it's about the typical average APR that's you know, fifteen, maybe sixteen percent or higher that that credit card debt's accruing at and twenty thousand dollars can quickly become even more like every month, you're just taking a percentage of that debt and adding it to your debt balance. So focusing on that is
good first. What I would say, so, let's say, worst case scenario, she can't qualify for any loan forgiveness programs. You know, even if she did, it's not like a quick fix. Have you looked into refinancing. I'm assuming if you go to medical school, you probably have some private loan debt and some federal student loan debt. Consider refinancing your debt with a lender. There's multiple private lenders out there that will refinance your debt. You can. I'll put
a list. I'll send you a list at Magnifying Money. We've done a roundup. I don't want to refer you to any one particular lender because they all offer different rates and terms. It's really about choosing the lender that gives you the best rate, gives you the best terms
for a student loan refinance. But if you were to refinance, they would basically pay off your existing loans and then you would have one loan payment with them and you would have one new hopefully lower interest rate, which can potentially give you more time to pay off your loan. It can make the payments more manageable so that you can throw as much as you can toward your credit card debt and get that paid off first.
The good thing is, you know you make good money. But also the good thing is you have for beautiful children. But the bad thing is your for beautiful children are expensive. So but you won't always have this debt, and so you'll be able to feel the affluent part and not so much the four poor part as you continue to pay off the debt.
I hope your kids are really really rich one day. Yes, but that's not a good investment plan. Don't do that. It's okay. Let's take one more quick question from listener Antonia. And Tonia has a quick question. She wants to know what's the difference between opening an IRA through your bank versus going with a robo investment company like Betterment thanks above the show.
Yes, well it's I've never opened a Betterment, but I'm assuming those were investing companies. Don't you kind of fill out a profile and they pick for you exactly.
Actually, this is a good question for me because Antonia I had had the exact same question. I'm trying to start an investment account. I've I've been saying I'm going to do it for a while, just outside of my four to one K, so I can start investing for wealth on the side. And I'm wondering should I go with Betterment or these other robo advisors like Acorns or wealth Front. And basically what they do is you fill
out a profile. They kind of determine what your risk, what your risk tolerance is, and how aggressive you want to be as an investor, and then they kind of put you into different mutual funds and it's it's a smart way to invest because they're kind of taking the human error out of the equation. And if you're do it investing, it can be really good because you don't want to spend a lot of time picking and choosing investments.
The important thing is you just want to start investing, and they kind of just put you into some low cost mutual funds right away and then do the work for you. But because they're doing it via these algorithms, they charge a lot lower fees than you would get if you went to like a traditional bank invest or, a traditional investment firm, and got you know, a human investment manager to manage your stuff for you. So thus
the prose of betterment. If you're someone who wants to if you really want to learn more about investments and you want to you want to actually pick and choose your individual mutual funds and have more of an active approach to that than opening up an IRA through your bank may work for you only if you know you're willing to do that extra bit of work.
So I'll say that what I do like about, like you said, the betterment, it's that that automation.
Piece, and you just have to be mindful of fees.
So the rule right is if you have like an in person, real person that's managing you, really should not pay more than one percent on the value of your Like you have to ask, like, how are fees paid, and they're like, oh, we charge one point five percent too high. No more than one percent for a real person, and no more than half a percent for a like robo advisor.
These are people that you're not going to meet. This is just like an algorithm.
So just keep that in mind as you know that half a percent is significant. You know when it comes down to how much money you'll have in the end. So that's why a lot of people, especially millennials, are really leading towards the robo advising because it's it's set it and forget it, and it's much cheaper.
Yeah, I think the fees are better, man, They're like less than half a percentage point, which is good, which is good. You can get lower fees than that if you put your own, if you go to Vanguard and you put together like your little mutual funds, because most mutual most mutual funds like a I'm invested. For example, I kind of put together my own retirement, my four to one K. What I did is I went to my old four to one K target date fund that
I had through Vanguard. Target date fund is basically it's put together based on your age and it automatically adjusts
your investments as you get older. And I've had I've liked my target date fund, but my new company that I recently joined doesn't offer the same target date fund, so I kind of had to put together the exact They did offer the pieces that I had in my target date fund though, so I kind of put together the same fund with my new employer, and I think the total expense ratio, which is the annual cost of managing that fund, is something like zero point one point
seven percent, which is great, which is amazing, you know, and you can say that's less than half what Betterment's charging. But I had to go in there, and I had to know a little bit to be able to do that. And I think if you're a beginning investor, I would. I think that there's a lot to be said for these rogo advisors because they kind of it's for me. I'm all about, like, Okay, it's good to compare your options, you know, compare the robot to the I ray and
the traditional and all that kind of stuff. But just start investing. Yeh, don't get too caught up in it. I mean you can't. I mean, I don't want to say you can't go wrong. But with a betterment, with you know, opening up a target date fund at a regular investment firm, I mean, you're getting in there, you're not paying a lot of fees. You know that upfront they're investing you in some really diverse portfolios, so you're
already ahead of the game in a way. It's better than sitting there and twiddling your thumbs and like anguishing over. I don't understand every little bit of this yet. Just get started, that's what's important.
Wind this week, my wind is super easy. My Superman is signed up for a lead removal class. We could finally make some movement on the house. We got the water turned on after they told us they couldn't find the spicket. And yeah, finally some movement on the house. So I'm looking for a contractor. I put like a call out so in the next before the end of this month, work will have begun on the house.
So I'm excited.
Okay, it's all happening.
Yes, it's not.
She oh, I wish I had a funhouse update.
I don't.
I don't have a fun house update. I actually listened to Tiffany's interview on the friend Zone, and I think Tiffany, am I have saved me from making well I don't know yet. You know where we want to do this big renovation, and I've kind of had it in my mind we're going to do everything right away, and it's looking increasingly like we will not be able to pay
for cash. Basically, I held aside cash to put toward the renovation, and it may not be enough because we have to do all this HVAC stuff and what about like blah blah blah and all the you know, we're talking to vendors and they have like financing plans and we can take out a home improvement loan and all these things are these options are sort of throwing it's
sort of been you know, thrown at me. And now I'm that I had to like stop myself listening to your podcast, listening to that episode you did on the friend Zone where you were talking about here's here's Shelley, who you know, gets a new house and then finance all her furniture. And then here's like Mandy who waits a year, saves up, moves in with his sister, like saves up by some Craigslist furniture in the meantime, and then saves up to buy her furniture cash. And here's
what their financial picture looks like. And I was like, I don't want to be Shelley. Yeah, but it's interesting.
It is the financial life away for the things that you want. Why like even us, of course we want to do every little thing, but we're taking our time because we're like Okay, we could spend.
Eight thousand dollars on lead removal, or Superman can.
Take a three hundred dollars class and him and his cousins can take a week to do the led removal themselves. Since for the city of city where we work, of Newark, you know, he does like maintenance and super stuff.
I don't know, like fixy stuff, you know.
So I'm like, well, this is just an extension, like almost like you now, he's certified to do leed removal, which is something that you know, we can actually right off for his job. So taking your time and you know, not kind of over financing yourself. In the end you get the house and the income and the money. So yeah, everybody goes crazy when it comes to renovations. I mean you watch HGTV. Everybody goes over them.
And it makes you feel like you need to have everything done right away and it's nice right Like I'm just like, God, I wish we had just been on an episode of Property Brothers. I could have had this done a six to eight weeks. The Jonathan never the Twins never fail. Unfortunately they're not filming in my county's my state right now, So I couldn't do that, so we're doing it all, you know, the old fashioned way. And these vendors, though, they make you feel like he
got to make decisions now. They're like, oh, it's the summertime and you know all these other people are lining up, so you need And I just feel like, Okay, I'm feeling uncomfortable. I feel like I'm being pressured and my spidy sense is going up and all this has been happening.
And then I heard you on the podcast and I'm like, you know what, I'm going to have to press pause a little bit and just take a step back, and I'm not to talk to my husband and just say I don't think we want to put ourselves in this situation, at least not right now. And stop believing that there are these like artificial timelines and artificial deadlines, because there's not. Like we are not we're not real estate investors. We're not flipping this house in a year. We're going to
live here for a decade or more. So we can we should take our time. And I made a plan. I made a meeting with our financial planner on Friday, and I'm going to get her advice and opinions on what we could potentially afford, like what we could afford to do now that would leave us comfortable where we want to be, feeling like we're too over leveraged and over financed because I am not like we're just like we're doing too well to struggle. I don't want to
be like I don't want to be house poor. So quickly, that's my that's what That's the last thing I want.
Okay, same, Look, that's good.
Thanks Tiffany, You're welcome.
And I spoke to it, like randomly, not that necessarily believe in psychics, but this like psychic lady reached out to me asking me for some financial advice.
Was like, huh, I feel a baby presence near you. I was like, I'll take it.
I know, I said, you know what, I don't know that I believe it all that, but I'll take it.
So were you watching that live feed of your nephews daycare at the same time?
I know, I know. She was like, huh it's a girl. I was like, okay, girl, I know.
So no, I mean, well I don't I mean no, I mean because they say women say that they're not pregnant.
I mean, I don't know.
That, but you know, but they just say you should never deny it. So I'm just like, for those women who want to get pregnant, I don't if it's just the old wives.
Tale positive thinking.
Yes, exactly so.
But when she said it, I was like, you know what, I'm gonna add all the baby vibes and and dust and.
Juju or whatever you guys have said it to me, continue to say that.
I will take every I'll take the Jewish vibe, I'll take Christian vibe, I'll take Muslim vibes. Whatever you I'm not bicky. I'll take the ball. So when she said it, I said, okay, girl, I'll take it. And this is how you fix your credit. So yeah, so hopefully good news soon
Okay, Fingers crossed,